1. Field To Which Invention Relates
This invention for medical profession use relates to a method and apparatus for treatment of malignant cells and tumors and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for treating such malignant cells and tumors by irradiating them with energy from the low frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum rather than from the traditional upper high frequency radiation therapy end of the spectrum thus subjecting the malignant cells and tumors to the influences of sinusoidal magnetic field of sufficient magnitude, applied for specific periods, to disturb them enough to attenuate or terminate the uncontrolled proliferation of abnormal cells.
2. The Prior Art
Radiation therapy for the treatment of some of the over one hundred different presently known human cancers has been effectively used by the medical profession for most of this century. This bombardment from x-ray tubes or radioactive materials of upper spectrum fringe electromagnetic wave energy is credited with greatly increasing the number of cancer regressions or cures. While radiation therapy may be the sole accepted treatment for some cancers, it is more generally used in conjunction with surgical measures and chemotherapy.
In spite of the long term use of this therapy, the mechanisms by which it works are not known. What is well known and empirically established is that some types of malignant cells are less resistant to the destructive forces of x-ray frequency radiation than the older normal cells. Therefore, the malignant cells are subjected to enough empirically established radiation to destroy the more sensitive malignant cells while the more resistant adjacent normal cells remain comparatively uninjured by the particular exposure. The cumulative effects of this form of energy, however, lower the resistance levels of normal cells and maximum x-ray exposure dosages result. Because of this, if complete regression of the malignant tumor being irradiated has not been achieved before the maximum dosage of radiation is reached, a grave, if not fatal, situation exists. When this situation occurs, this otherwise very effective therapy can no longer be used, and prior alternatives are dangerous and questionable. Unfortunately, this situation where maximum radiation exposure is reached before satisfactory regression is quite common in especially lethal forms of sarcomas and carcinomas. Accordingly, the present invention is directed to providing an alternative form of treatment which will attain good regression or destruction of such malignant cell formations without the above-noted cumulative effects found in conventional radiation treatment.
The state-of-the-art involving the use of magnetic fields for treating human type malignancies is relatively new and narrow. Prior to the present invention, the concentration of effort regarding magnetic field effects on malignant cells has been with the use of permanent magnets, direct current electromagnets and massive kilogauss unidirectional pulses electromagnets. The magnet field effects were first evaluated on laboratory animals which hosted human cancers. The results indicated that killer type tumors progressed slower in the presence of strong magnetic fields than similar cancers not subjected to the fields. Since the results were considered beneficial, a small number of people with terminal inoperable tumors were treated in Boston, Mass. with unidirectional magnetic fields. In some cases, implanted magnets were used. The reports on these experiments stated that the treated patients lived a few weeks longer than normally expected and concluded that further work was justified.
The best reported results were obtained by Dr. Kenneth A. MacLean of New York City, who used a several kilogauss, very low frequency pulses, unidirection field generating electromagnet. Dr. MacLean treated several terminal patients by subjecting the entire body to a burst of the large, unidirectional magnetic fields every few seconds. The published reports indicate the patients lived months longer than they otherwise would have.
Work on the present invention has led the inventor to believe that one of the main reasons for the beneficial effects of Dr. MacLean's pulses field technique resides in the effects of the leading and trailing edges of the magnetic pulses producing shocks which causes some tumbling of the magnetically responding intercellular elements. In addition, the present inventor has determined that the transient phenomena of the rise and fall periods of the magnetic pulses would also generate a change in the nucleus to shell bioelectric bipolar voltage potential, thus causing additional cellular disturbances for at least their time durations.
On the other hand, problems inherent in Dr. MacLean's technique and absent in the present invention are the costly massive bulk of the equipment used including banks of storage batteries and the use of magnetic field strengths substantially above 550 gauss. The latter may be a problem since it has recently been established that 550 gauss is the threshold of normal cell tolerance for magnetic field exposure, and that when this level is exceeded normal cell changes occur, which may lead to possible undesired side effects with long term use.